In line with global trends, smartphones are outshipping feature phones for the first time in the APAC region (although excluding Japan), representing 53 per cent of the market in Q2 2013.
But Apple is no longer among the top five manufacturers in the region, according to IDC, pushed out by Chinese brands like Lenovo, Coolpad, Huawei and ZTE. Samsung holds 24 per cent of the market, shipping 28m units in Q2, while Apple shipped 7m and hold six per cent. Further smaller handset makers from China like Xiaomi made up 38 per cent of second quarter shipment volumes, up from 20 per cent in the same quarter of 2012.
In total, 119m smartphones were shipped in Q2 in the region, a 10 per cent increase on the previous quarter and 75 per cent more than the same time a year earlier. Feature phone shipments dropped seven per cent quarter-on-quarter to 106m.
“In emerging markets like China and India, IDC has seen many local competitors spring up, but only in the last few quarters have we seen them aggressively scale up, competitive on both price and hardware specs like bigger screens,” said Melissa Chau, a senior research manager at IDC. “We are now hitting a place where there are smartphones for every price point, where the masses will benefit from the slew of players bringing in more options.”
IDC forecasts that total smartphone shipments will balloon from 400m in 2013 to 749m in 2017.
